2006 Yearly Report

The 2006 Coburg 24 Hour carnival was held on the
weekend of 22-23 April at the Harold Stevens Reserve in Coburg. A total
of 25
walkers and 27 runners submitted entries and all bar a few late
scratchings keenly contested the various running and walking events on
offer. It was particularly gratifying to see 31 of the 52 entrants
choosing to compete in the 24 Hour events.

The carnival started at 10AM on the Saturday morning
in typical Melbourne autumnal weather – variable and impossible to
predict!
The forecast threatened showers but luckily the race was spared and
conditions, although slightly on the cold side, turned out to be nearly
ideal for such an event.

Jens Borello from Denmark
was already a triple centurion - Continental (C317 22:15:34 2004),
British (C1026 23:17:36 2006) and American (C62 23:21:14 2006) – and he
made the trip to Australia specifically for this event. He judged his
pace perfectly, sitting back in the field as others pushed the pace
early. His patience was rewarded as those ahead of him came back to the
field. He took the lead soon after the 100 km mark and was untroubled
to become Australian Centurion number 52 with a fine time of 22:33:01

Patrick Fisher came into
the event with only one ultra distance walk to his credit, a noteworthy
87.8 km in the 2006 Gosford 12 Hour. Prepared by and supported during
the event by Canberra based centurions Robyn White and Carol Baird, he
always looked strong and was still full of walking as he reached the
100 mile mark in 23:10:38 to become Australian Centurion number 53.

Deryck Skinner became
Australian Centurion number 51 with an astonishing walk in the 2006 Sri
Chinmoy. Aged 72 years at that time, he completed the 100 miles in
22:39:55 to set a whole swag of new Australian M70 running and walking
records. Now aged 73, he completed his second centurion qualifier, this
time with a time of 23:23:43.

Geoff Hain, Australian
Centurion number 49, had already completed 3 100 mile qualifiers in the
previous 18 months (including one in NZ). Coming from a backgound as an
ultra distance runner, he has made a very successful transition to
ultra distance walking and produced a fourth centurion performance at
Coburg in a time of 23:38:25.

Of particular interest to all was the race within a
race between octogenarians Ken Matchett (84 years young) and Stan Miskin (80 years young) who
between them broke (subject to ratification) six IAU World M80 running
records. Ken, entered as a runner, broke the World M80 records for 30
Miles, 40 Miles, 50 Miles and 12 Hours. Stan, entered as a walker,
broke the World M80 24 hour record. The World M80 100 km record was
almost certainly also broken but we will have to wait a few days to see
which of these combatants passed that milestone first.

CENTURION WALK QUALIFIERS

Jens
Borello
Pat Fisher
Deryck Skinner
Geoff Hain

22:36:13
23:10:38
23:23:43
23:38:25

C52 **
C53 **
C51
C49

24
Hour Walk

1

FISHER, Patrick

166.005
km

2

SKINNER, Deryck

164.577 km

3

HAIN, Geoff

161.200 km

4

BORELLO, Jens

160.934 km

5

BILLETT, David

152.992 km

6

MISKIN, Stan

140.018 km

7

COMMINS, Louis

131.517 km

8

O’NEILL, Terry

109.525 km

9

SKRUCANY, Rudolf

86.220 km

10

BAKER, Fred

71.200 km

11

JEMMESON, Sean

31.405 km

24
Hour Walk Female

1

BOLLEN, Karyn

154.725 km

2

HOWORTH, Sandra

83.668 km

12
Hour Walk Male

1

TURNER, Gary

68.715 km

2

JACKSON, Ross

62.457 km

3

CARTER, Ken

53.827 km

12
Hour Walk Female

1

CHOMYN, Sharon

82.814 km

6
HourWalk Male

1

WHYTE, Robin

51.200 km

2

JORDAN, Stephen

44.121 km

3

PROUDFOOT, Gordon

36.431 km

6H
Walk Female

1

BAIRD, Carol

42.359 km

2

MARSHALL, Diana

42.007 km

3

MISKIN, Ellwyn

38.756 km

AUSTRALIAN 100 KM CHAMPIONSHIP FOR MEN

1

O'NEILL,
Terry

VIC

13:19:08

2

BORELLO,
Jens

DENMARK

13:33:01

3

FISHER,
Patrick

ACT

13:50:49

AUSTRALIAN 100 KM CHAMPIONSHIP
FOR WOMEN

1

BOLLEN,
Karyn

VIC

14:02:39

The Jack Webber
Trophy was awarded to Pat
Fisher for the
most meritorious Centurion performance on the day.